I finished reading Peter David's new novel Once Burned, the fifth book in the new series "The Captain's Table". The books in the series aren't really related (you'll understand how if you read one of them). In fact, Once Burned is a chonologically unattached continuation of Peter David's "New Frontier" series, following the travels of the USS Excalibur and its captain, Mackenzie Calhoun.

An alternate title could very well have been A Rock and a Hard Place 2. It's obvious to see that the Quintin Stone in Peter David is still alive and kicking, even though he has undergone a Xenexian face-lift. Not that I'm complaining about the similarity between the two characters. M'k'n'zy really is the next best thing to a QS sequel, though as an outlet for this particular muse of David's probably guarantees that that will never happen. Still, it is good reading and I heartily recommend the "New Frontier" series, even though those people who aren't all that much into Star Trek. You see, the great thing about Peter David's writing is that it's not about all the technobabble and mumbo-jumbo that's so prolific in so many Star Trek shows and books. David's stories are about characters and people. The events do not drive the people, the people drive the events. Reading his works will not turn you into a geek, if that's what you're afraid of.